A number of industries, such as the mining industry, rely on large mobile machines (e.g., off-road haul trucks and wheel loaders) to transport cargo loads. The loads can be very large, and the machines are often operated around the clock. As the mobile machine travels, tires of the mobile machine generate heat due to friction with the road surface.
One way to quantify the heat generation of a tire is by calculating the tire's ton-miles-per-hour (TMPH) or ton-kilometers-per-hour (TKPH). A tire's TMPH may be proportional to the product of, for example, the weight of a payload of the mobile machine F and a speed of the mobile machine S:TMPH∝F·S  (1)
High TMPH values can indicate excessive amounts of heat generation, and excessive heat generation can lead to accelerated wear and failure of the mobile machine's tires. Due to the large cost of replacing tires, it is desirable to keep the tire's TMPH generally below a predetermined value.
One approach to limiting heat generation in mobile machine tires is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,631,832 (the '832 patent) issued to Hagenbuch on May 20, 1997. The '832 patent discloses a computer that cumulatively records ton-mile per hour data over a given time frame. As a vehicle accumulates ton-mile per hour figures, the cumulative figures for all trucks are compared, and the trucks with excessive ton-mile per hour numbers can be dispatched to locations from which less ton-mile per hour figures occur.
Additionally, the computer as well as vehicle sensor processing units may analyze vehicle component strain, such as engine operating temperature, hydraulic oil temperature, heat buildup in the tires, etc. As a particular component on a vehicle approaches a preset limit, the vehicle may be dispatched to a haul that may be less trying on the vehicle (e.g., in a mine with a multi-bench, operation vehicles may be rotated so that no one vehicle is continually hauling off of the lowest bench).
Although the apparatus and method of '832 patent may use TMPH calculations to reduce tire wear, they may still be problematic. For example, in cases where multiple machines are needed to haul on a single route, it may not be possible or practical to dispatch a high TMPH vehicle to another location (e.g., another location may not exist and/or the machines may not be interchangeable).
The disclosed machine system is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above.